National Summit on the European Green Deal - Speakers

		Theodora Antonakaki Theodora Antonakaki is coordinating BoG's work on climate, sustainability and research at the Climate Change Impacts Study Committee (CCISC) since 2009 and representing the Bank of Greece (BoG) at the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS). She obtained her Diploma at the Architectural Department of the Polytechnic School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the MSc in Built Environment at the Bartlett School of Built Environment of the University of London, where she was an Honorary Research Fellow. She has consulted companies in Greece and abroad in a wide range of projects, in planning, urban and architectural design, on issues of sustainability and socioeconomic impacts. She has participated in competitions and her work has gained awards from Europa Nostra and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. Theodora has been an Adjunct Professor at the Syracuse University, presented her work at conferences and has lectured at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the University of Stirling, the School of Nordic Urban Design, University of London and the Hellenic Open University. She has written book chapters in edited books and her work has been published at peer reviewed journals.
		Konstantinos Aravossis Prof. Konstantinos Aravossis is Secretary General of Natural Environment & Water at the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy. He is a Mechanical Engineer with a M.Sc. in Management Science from Imperial College, University of London. He has further been awarded a PhD by the National Technical University of Athens. He is an Assoc. Professor of “Planning, Management and Assessment of Technological and Environmental Investments” at the NTUA and Professor at the ATHENS MBA (NTUA - Athens University of Economics) since 1997. He is the Coordinator of the “Environmental Economics and Sustainable Development Research Group” of the Sector of Industrial Management and Operations Research of the Mechanical Engineering School. He was the Environmental Advisor to the President of the Greek New Democracy political party. He was President of the Greek Branch of the Waste to Energy Research and Technology Council coordinated by Columbia University and associate researcher of the Earth Engineering Center -Columbia University as well as visiting Professor at Imperial College-London. He was President of the Coordinating Committee of the Institute of Production and Operations Management / Hellenic Management Association. He has been an advisor of the Deputy Minister of Culture for the Olympic Games Constructions and their Post-Olympic utilization, President of the Greek Association of Environmental Protection Companies, President of the Hellenic Solid Waste Management Association (HSWMA) (now Hon. President), President of the Ordinary Environmental Committee of the Technical Chamber of Greece and member of Evaluation Committees for Investment and Energy Projects of the Ministry of Development.
		Spyros Arsenis Dr. Spyros Arsenis is the coordinator of the NBG Business Seeds program and the initial coordinator of the act4Greece crowdfunding platform. Member of the advisory boards of Uni.fund, Metavallon, Big Pi and OK!Thess. Also member of the board of Hellenic Society of Environment and Cultural Heritage and member of the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce’s Education, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Committee. He is an Electrical Engineer with 25 years of professional multi-sector, multi-discipline experience in Greece and abroad on international telecom projects, business banking and innovation, and is also the author of 7 books on ICT and the Internet.
		Costa Carras Costa Carras in 1972 with his wife Lydia he founded Greece's leading environmental organization, Elliniki Etairia (Society for the Environment and the Cultural Heritage), of which he was President 1972-1975 and 2001-2008. Since 1973 he has represented Elliniki Etairia in Europa Nostra, the federation of European conservation organizations, and is that body's longest-serving Vice-President. He is a founding member of Friends of Cyprus in London, for whose annual Report be he often writes, and of the Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe, where he serves on the Board as Rapporteur for the Joint History Project, which has produced six workbooks covering various periods of the region’s past, most recently the period 1945-2008. He was co-chairman of the British Council of Churches' Commission on Trinitarian Doctrine in the 1980s, when he also organized the ground-breaking 1988 meeting on religion and the environment in Patmos as a lay Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
		Alexandros Charalambides Dr Alexandros Charalambides is a Mechanical Engineering graduate and holds a PhD from Imperial College London. His PhD project was funded by Honda R & D Co, Ltd of Japan. He has worked at Imperial College London, at the University of Tokyo and on his return to Cyprus, at the Energy Service of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism. In 2009, he was appointed at the Department of Environmental Science and Technology and his research interests lie in the fields of solar energy, algal biofuel production and energy saving in buildings. His dynamism and passion for sustainable development and for developing ideas and young talent are what drove him to seek out like-minded individuals and create Chrysalis LEAP, the first accelerator in Cyprus, focusing on cleantech and ENERMAP, an EU-funded spin-out from the University.
		Nikos Charalambides He has studied Physics, Meteorology-Oceanology and General Oceanography in Athens and Paris. Since 1985 he has been actively involved in nature conservation. He joined Greenpeace as an ocean ecology campaigner, and later he became coordinator of the campaigns department. Since 2002, he is the Executive Director of Greenpeace in Greece. He has been actively following the debate on energy-climate change for more than 20 years, focusing on solutions work. He is also working in the direction of Green Development, focusing on the need to find solutions that will get us out of the multi crisis (climate, financial and social) while showcasing concrete examples. His focus is on identifying synergies between humanitarian and environmental challenges. Nikos Charalambides has been a Board Member in various bodies such as the National Organization for Recycling, the Climate Action Network – Europe and member in various Committees such as the National Committee for Energy Planning. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on environmental protection, the role of civil society and NGOs, climate change, corporate responsibility, green development and sustainability.
		Maria Christantoni Maria Christantoni studied Mining Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and holds an MSc in Water Resources Science and Technology. She is currently a PhD candidate in Environmental Economics at the NTUA. She is the Sustainability Officer of the Hellenic Republic Development Asset Fund, focusing on the integration of sustainability into the privatization process. She has previously worked for 5 years as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Expert in the Directorate of Environmental Licensing at the Hellenic Ministry of Environment and Energy. She is the youngest-ever elected member of the National Assembly of the Technical Chamber of Greece and has served two consecutive terms from 2010 till 2017.
		Kirsten Dunlop Dr. Kirsten Dunlop joins Climate-KIC today as the new CEO. Kirsten joins Suncorp, an Australian financial services conglomerate, where she served as Executive General Manager for Strategic Innovation. At Suncorp, which is itself a long-standing partner of Climate-KIC, Kirsten contributed to the formation of Climate-KIC Australia, based on the European Union's Climate-KIC model. In the past, she has been involved in academic and consulting work. She has worked in banking and insurance in Europe, Australia and North America.
		Andrei Geica Andrei Geica is the Chief Policy & Impact Officer of Sporos Platform, focusing on policies to materialise the Circular Transition of SMEs. He monitors policy developments at national and European level to inform the investment strategy and assists portfolio firms by coordinating the provision of dedicated consultancy services on circular business models. Andrei Geica is an EU policy expert with international experience, advising companies on how to inform their strategies for future-proof decision-making based on a constant monitoring of all EU policy areas covering major industrial sectors. With direct experience from the European Parliament, followed by 2 years of Policy Monitoring Consultant in the private sector in one of the largest Parliamentary legislative monitoring consultancies in Brussels, he decided to apply this knowledge in the underserved South-East European region by providing tailored policy monitoring in Greece, following more than 5.000 sources of information on a daily basis. Using this broad expertise, Andrei instructs companies on how to avoid silo mentalities, how to exit path dependencies, and how to keep up with the numerous changes and evolutions that happen at both European and global scale, thus directly contributing to the competitiveness and the internationalisation of Greek businesses. These key insights into the policy process and global trends led to the establishment of Sporos Circular Solutions, of which he is Managing Partner. Andrei holds a BSc in Political Science and International Relations (Cum Laude) at the University of Parma, Italy and an MSc in Politics and Government in the European Union (Distinction) at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
		Yiannis Geragotellis Yiannis completed his studies on the field of Informatics in the Athens University of Economics and Business in 1993; got his Master in Science Degree on Technology and Innovation Management at the University of Sussex/SPRU (UK). He is Founder and Managing Partner of KiNNO and works as Innovation Management consultant. Prior of founding KiNNO ha has gained significant experience as manager of R&D projects, business consultant and financial analyst in the private sector. Yiannis has experience in design and management of projects related to innovation competencies, technology transfer, research exploitation and business development. He has been working in developing Knowledge & Technology Transfer Activities, creating & supporting Transnational Knowledge Networks and building linkages between Business & Research actors. His experience includes among other, provision of mentoring, coaching and capacity building services to researchers, startups, entrepreneurs and executives in sectors such as energy, agro-food, environment, transport, maritime and ICT. He is currently HUB manager for INNOENERGY in Greece.
		Evangelos Gerasopoulos Dr. Evangelos Gerasopoulos is a Research Director at the Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development of the National Observatory of Athens (NOA). He has a PhD in the field of Atmospheric Physics and Dynamics. He is the Director of the Greek GEO Office, the focal point for Earth Observation activities at the national level and serves as the Greek delegate in the Programme Board of the Intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO; since 2015) and the EuroGEOSS Coordination Group (since 2017). He is also member of the Board of the Hellenic Quality Assurance & Accreditation Agency (HQA), and served in the past as member of the Sectorial Scientific Council for the Environment and Energy of the National Council for Research and Technology (2014 - 2016).
		Emmanuel Giakoumakis Emmanuel Giakoumakis is Professor at the Department of Informatics of the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) and Rector of the University since 2015. He has taught Software Engineering, Programming Languages, as well as Regulation in the Electronic Communications Market, at undergraduate and postgraduate level. His research focuses on topics in: Software Engineering, Biomedical Applications, Regulation and Competition in the Electronic Communications market, Telecommunications Policies. In parallel to his academic career, he has served in senior management positions, such as: Chairman of the National Telecommunications and Post Commission (2000-2005), Secretary General of Communications of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (1998-2000), Chairman and Managing Director of the State’s Hellenic Information Systems Societe Anonyme (ELSYP SA) (1995-1997), Head of Informatics Division of the Hellenic Agency for Local Development and Local Government (EETAA) (1988-1990).
		Kostis Hatzidakis Kostis Hatzidakis is a Greek politician from the New Democracy party. He currently serves as the Minister for the Environment and Energy in the Cabinet of Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He was elected President of the Youth Organisation of New Democracy (ONNED), serving from 1992 to 1994. He was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for New Democracy in the European elections of 1994, 1999 and 2004. In the 2007 Greek legislative election, he was elected to the Hellenic Parliament for the Athens B constituency and consequently resigned from the European Parliament. He served as Minister for Transport and Communications from 2007 to 2009 and then as Minister for Development in 2009.
		Yannis Ioannidis Yannis Ioannidis is the President and General Director of the ATHENA Research and Innovation Center as well as a Professor at the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is also serving a 2-year term (2018-2020) as the Secretary/Treasurer of ACM. He is an ACM and IEEE Fellow and a member Academia Europaea. He has been a (co-)principal investigator in over 40 research projects funded by various government agencies (USA, Europe, Greece) or private industry. He is currently on the editorial board of Communications of the ACM (CACM) and has served in the past on several others, such as Information Systems, the Journal of Digital Libraries, and the VLDB Journal. He currently serves as the Greek delegate to the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), a member of its Executive Board, the ESFRI representative to the e-Infrastructures Reflection Group (e-IRG), and an expert in the Programme Committee on Research Infrastructures within the European Commission's Horizon2020 Framework Programme.
		Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou is a technology entrepreneur and investor. He serves as Co-Founder and General Partner at Velocity.Partners, a pre-seed and seed Venture Capital Fund active in Greece and SEE. He is best known as the Founder and Curator of TEDxAthens, the most impactful platform for ideas, dialogue and talks in Greece. Prior to his role at Velocity.Partners, Dimitris co-founded Found.ation (a leading startup acceleration and innovation hub in the Balkans), TechTalent School (a coding school) and TechTalent Pool (a recruiting SaaS for developers). From 2011 to 2013, Dimitris served as a Referrer for pre-seed investment firm HackFwd, leading its pipeline in Greece and Southeast Europe. DKG holds a Law degree from the University of Kent at Canterbury and an LLM (Master of Laws) in Computer and Communications Law from the Queen Mary University of London. He is a 2X alumnus of U.S. Department of State "International Visitor Leadership Program", classes of 2013 and 2017, the latter under the prestigious "Gold Stars" program, and a member of the Global Shapers Community of the World Economic Forum. Dimitris regularly speaks on the topics of entrepreneurship, technology, design thinking, digital storytelling and leadership.
		Demetres Karavellas He is a conservation leader who has worked with WWF in various posts for over twenty five years. He has been active in the field and on key policy issues linked to natural resources, conservation of species and critical habitats, climate change and sustainable development, at national, regional and global level. He is the CEO of WWF Greece and is presently also chairing the WWF Mediterranean Marine Initiative, a concerted network wide effort to conserve the valuable marine and coastal ecosystems and promote a sustainable blue economy for the region. He is also a member of the SDSN Leadership Council of Greece. He holds a BSc in Marine Biology from Queen Mary University and a MSc in Fisheries Biology & Management from Bangor University.
		Louka T. Katseli Louka T. Katseli is Professor of International Economics and Development at the Department of Economics of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens. She has served as Greece’s Minister of Labor and Social Security (2010 – 2011) and Minister of Economy, Competitiveness and Shipping (2009 – 2010). With a Ph. D in International and Development Economics from Princeton University, she has taught as Assistant and Associate Professor at Yale University and has published extensively in her fields of interest which include international, development and institutional economics. She has served as Director of the OECD Development Centre (2003 - 2007), member and vice-president of the UN Committee for Development Policy (1996–1999), Special Advisor to the Greek Prime Minister (1993 – 1996) and Director of the Centre for Planning and Economic Research (1983-1986). She has been a member of the EC Monetary and Economic Policy Committees and an advisor and consultant to various governments and international organizations.
		Angelica Kemene Angelica Kemene is leading the Market Analysis & Intelligence department of Optima Shipping Services covering dry cargo, oil and gas tankers, container shipping and shipbuilding. Angelica advises clients around the world on shipping and financial markets developments, assisting them with shipping investment, strategy and chartering decisions. Meantime, founded and manages Optima-X, a maritime innovation hub in Athens, hosting the Enso XL accelerator for startups related to the MaritimeTech. She holds 12 years of active experience in the shipping market and has travelled extensively to meet and participate with industry professionals in conferences around the world. During her professional experience, she has been involved in analyzing various traded commodity (mining, energy and agri sectors) movements and their future performance related to the Shipping Industry in ICAP Plc, London. Before joining ICAP plc she worked for the Baltic Exchange Derivatives Trading Ltd, a subsidiary of the Baltic Exchange in London, in the Market Surveillance team on FFA trades. She has partnered with Monte Nero Capital Advisory on an ad hoc basis as a Business Associate in Investor Relations. She also gained experience as a Commercial Shipping Analyst with Trafigura Beheer B.V. mainly working on tanker performance analysis and post fixture. Following a degree in Shipping, she went on to earn an MSc in Mathematical Trading and Finance from CASS Business School in London and she enhanced her education with Python programming, Digital Marketing and Data Science certificates.
		Petros Kokkalis Petros Kokkalis is a Greek businessman and member of the European Parliament. He holds a B.A. from Hampshire College with a concentration in history; his Division III title was "Making the Love of My People: Constructing Legitimacy for the Monarchy in Late 19th Century Greece.” He earned his M.P.A. at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he serves as a member of the Dean's Alumni Leadership Council. He was the Vice-President and shareholder of Intracom Holdings, one of the largest multinational technology groups in South-Eastern Europe, and the Vice-President and shareholder of Intralot S.A., a gaming technology supplier and lottery licensed operator. He was also the Vice-President of the Greek football club Olympiacos, and is the Vice-President of the Kokkalis Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes education and training, culture and social welfare, medical research and information technology, and athletics, both in Greece and abroad. He is Secretary General of Organization Earth, an environmental education NGO. He was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in the 2019 Euroelections with SYRIZA.
		Neofytos Kolokotronis Neofytos Kolokotronis, Innovation Assosiate at Found.ation, is the program manager for the EIT Digital activities. Found.ation, an innovation and technology platform, is the local strategic partner of EIT Digital in Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Rumania and Albania, under the ARISE Europe Programme. Neofytos is responsible for the coordination of EIT Digital activities, which include supporting deep-tech early stage startups, scouting for local scaleups, and the organization of educational workshops on digital innovation. He has extensive experience in developing digital products, through his participation in international communities and organizations.
		Georgios Kostakos Georgios Kostakos, PhD (Kent), is Executive Director of the Brussels-based Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability (FOGGS). He is also Co-Director of the Hellenic Forum for Sustainable Development (ELFOVA) jointly run by FOGGS and the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP). Georgios has previously served in key positions in the Secretariat of the United Nations, dealing inter alia with issues of global sustainability, climate change, and UN reform. He has been an associate of ELIAMEP, the University of Athens, and the European consultancies consortium NEEMO EEIG. His studies include advanced degrees in Mechanical Engineering and International Relations.
		Phoebe Koundouri Professor Dr. Phoebe Koundouri holds a PhD and MPhil in Economics and Econometrics from the University of Cambridge (UK). She is Professor (Chair) of Sustainable Development (Economics and Econometrics) at the School of Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business (Greece) and she is the elected President of the European Association of Environmental and Natural Resource Economists (https://www.eaere.org/) with more than 1200 scientific institutions as members from more than 60 different countries. Prof. Koundouri is listed in the 1% of most-cited women economists in the world, with 15 published books and more than 250 published scientific papers. Prof. Phoebe Koundouri is also the Founder and Scientific Director of the Research Laboratory: ReSEES: Research on Socio-Economic and Environmental Sustainability (www.dept.aueb.gr/en/ReSEES<http://www.dept.aueb.gr/en/ReSEES>) at the Athens University of Economics and Business and an affiliated Professor at the ATHENA Research and Innovation Center (Greece) where she directs EIT Climate KIC Hub Greece of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (www.climate-kic.org). She is also the co-chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Network – Greece (www.unsdsn.org), chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of ICRE8 International Research Center and chair of the scientific advisory board of the European Forest Institute (www.efi.int). In the past, Professor Koundouri has held academic positions at the University of Cambridge, University College London, the University of Reading and the London School of Economics. She acts as an advisor to the European Commission, World Bank, EIB, EBRD, OECD, UN, NATO, WHO, numerous national and international foundations and organizations, as well as national governments in all five continents. Notably she is currently member of the drafting Priministerial Committee for 10-year development plan for Greece, as well as in the Climate Change Committee of the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy. Since 1997, she has coordinated more than 75 interdisciplinary research projects and has attracted significant competitive research funding. Professor Koundouri and her large interdisciplinary team have produced research and policy results that have contributed to accelerating the research commercialization for the sustainability transition in Europe, as well as shaping European policies. Over the last two decades, Professor Koundouri has given keynote and public lecturers all over the world and received various prizes for academic excellence.
		Riccardo Lambiris He studied Electronic Engineering at the University of Sussex and has obtained a MSc. postgraduate degree in Project Management from the University of Birmingham. He has also obtained an MSc. in International Trade, Transport and Finance from City University in the United Kingdom. Initially at Rockwell Golde he then moved into investment banking (initially Telesis / Eurobank and later HSBC) covering a wide number of industries, products and sectors, focusing on Greece, Cyprus and the wider South-East European region. Since October 2017, he is the Chief Executive Officer of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, charged with privatizing State Assets.
		Xu Lirong Xu Lirong is Chairman of the Board and Party Secretary of China COSCO SHIPPING Corporation Limited. He started his career in March 1975. He had been Deputy Head of Ship Management Department, Assistant to the President, and President of COSCO Shanghai, Deputy General Manager, General Manager of COSCO Shanghai’s Freight Forwarding Company, President and Party Secretary of Shanghai Shipping Exchange, President of COSCO Container Lines, Executive Vice President of China COSCO Holdings Company Limited, Executive Vice President and Party Committee Member of COSCO Group. He served as Director and President of China Shipping (Group) Company from Aug 25th 2011. In Nov 2013, he started to serve as Chairman of the Board and Party Secretary of China Shipping (Group) Company. He has taken his current position since January, 2016. Mr. Xu Lirong, a senior engineer, graduated from Dalian Maritime University, majored in maritime driving, and obtained MBA degree from Shanghai Maritime University.
		Yannis Maniatis Dr. Eng. Yannis Maniatis is a Rural and Surveying Engineer (National Technical University of Athens). He is an Assoc. Professor at University of Piraeus since 2002 and a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Economic Geography of University of Bonn (1995).Dr. Maniatis was elected as a Member of the Greek Parliament for the prefecture of Argolida for the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) for the first time in the 2004 elections and re-elected in 2007, 2009, May 2012, June 2012 and September 2015 elections. He has been: Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change; Secretary of PASOK Parliamentary Group; Deputy Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change; Secretary General of the Ministry of Transport and Communications; Chairman of the Athens Urban Transport Organisation (OASA); Chairman of the Postal Savings Bank. Dr. Maniatis has participated with more than two hundred scientific papers and lectures in international congresses and scientific magazines.
		Nikos Mantzaris Nikos Mantzaris holds a Diploma in Chemical Engineering from the NTUA. Following two years of research work at the “Demokritos” National Research Center, he completed his PhD in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota (USA), while also studying biology. He holds a PhD in Mathematical Biology (Department of Mathematics, University of Minnesota). He was an Assistant and then an Associate Professor with tenure at the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Biomedical Engineering departments at Rice University (Houston, TX, USA). His research was focused on biotechnology, expanded to nanotechnology, while also exploring aspects of sustainability, such as biodegradable plastics. After returning to Greece, Nikos worked as a scientific adviser at the office of the Greek Green MEP where he concentrated on EU policy developments relating in particular to climate change and energy, while also following other environmental issues such as gold extraction in Greece and the Balkans, hexavalent chromium in potable water, waste management and home heating systems. He then worked at WWF Greece until 2018 where he was the head of the Climate and Energy Policy Sector, concentrating on lignite phase out, the shift of the energy model from fossil fuels to renewables, as well as the just transition of lignite mining regions to the post-lignite era and energy efficiency at both at the national and European levels. Nikos was appointed member of the Special Scientific Committee on Climate Change Mitigation at the Ministry of Environment and Energy in January 2020.
		Dimitris Mavrikios Dimitris Mavrikios is the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of EIT Manufacturing - the newly established EIT KIC. He is responsible for implementing the annual cycle of operations, organizing and overseeing the process to elaborate and approve the annual Business Plans and their operational executions. During the start-up year of EIT Manufacturing, he has coordinated the set up and launch of the KIC's operations. Before joining EIT Manufacturing, he has been Head of European Affairs at the Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation at the University of Patras. He has been responsible for strategic European research co-operations and European manufacturing research and innovation initiatives.
		Christos I. Megalou Christos I. Megalou has served as Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director, Executive Member of the Board of Directors of Piraeus Bank S.A. since April 1, 2017. He has been Board Member since March 2017. He is Chairman of the Group Executive Committee of the Company. He is a senior International Banker, who has worked for Global Financial Institutions, Investment Banks and Commercial Banks. From 2013 to 2015 he was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Eurobank Ergasias SA. On 2015 and 2016 he acted as a Senior Advisor of Fairfax Financial Holdings in Toronto and London and from May 2016 was engaged as Senior Advisor of Advent International in London. Mr. Megalou held senior positions at Credit Suisse Investment Banking for over 16 years in London, UK. in 2013 he was appointed Vice-Chairman of Southern Europe. From 2011 to 2013 he was Co-Head of Investment Banking for Southern Europe (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Cyprus). Mr. Megalou was a Director at BZW (Barclays de Zoete Wedd) in London, having joined Barclays Bank in Athens in 1989. He started his banking career at Agricultural Bank of Greece in 1986 and he has held numerous other positions in Greece, UK and USA.
		George Megas Georgios Megas is an Innovation manager and the Greek National Contact Point for ICT & FET/EIC in H2020. He is a member of the Enterprise Europe Network ICT Sector Group with significant achievements regarding Technology Transfer partnerships and consortia creation in the ICT sector in various EU projects. Mr. Megas is a certified Innovation Guide from the Improve academy and the alternate NCP for Access to Risk finance. He is the coordinator of the EIT Health HUB for Greece. Mr. Megas is responsible for Digital Innovation Hubs and DEI policies in the Idealist2020 ICT NCP network. Mr. Megas holds an MSc in Industrial Management and Technology.
		Pavlos Mylonas Pavlos Mylonas was appointed Chief Executive Officer of National Bank of Greece in July 2018. He joined NBG in 2000 and served, inter alia, as Deputy CEO, CRO and Head of Strategy. He worked on the staff of the OECD from 1995 to 2000, and at the International Monetary Fund from 1987 to 1995. In the years 1985-1987, he was visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics in Boston University. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics-Economics (Magna cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa) from Brown University, as well as a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University.
		Andreas Papandreou Andreas Papandreou is a Professor in the Economics Department of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Prof. Papandreou has 30 years of academic experience in various Universities, including University College London and Harvard. His research and published work are mostly in the fields of environmental economics, institutional economics, political economy and welfare economics. He is alternate Head of the Department of Economics and Director of the Section of Political Economy at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is a Research Associate of the International Center of Research on the Environment and the Economy (ICRE8). He is the Director of the Political Economy of Sustainable Development Lab (PESD) at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The Lab has also established the Athens Behavioral and Experimental Economics and Social Sciences Unit (ABEESS) to undertake, inter alia, experimental research relating to sustainable development. He is Co-chair of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network Greece (SDSN Greece).
		Vassilis Pateras Vassilis Pateras is the President of Axios Hellas. He studied shipping at Morley College in London and Business Administration at the American College of London and currently works in the maritime industry. He has served in the Hellenic Navy SealTeams. He is an offshore world champion of the Round Britain 2008 Power Boat Race and a record holder of the Round of Britain. Vassilis Pateras was ranked 6thin the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC 2011), a well-knownTransatlantic Sailing Race. He has been actively involved in volunteering since 2007 as a rib skipper in the Aegean islands and as fleet commander in charity missions since 2014.
		Ioannis Paspaliaris Prof. Ioannis Paspaliaris is a Mining and Metallurgical Engineer. His current activities involve teaching and research at the Laboratory of Metallurgy of National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). He has authored or co-authored more than 91 research papers published in International and National Journals and he is a regular reviewer to several international journals in the field of mining and metallurgical engineering. His main activities over the last 5 years include the participation in EC or National funded projects. He has been scientific responsible or participant in more than 50 research projects. He is an active member of the European Construction Technology Platform (ECTP), participating also in the focus area of FA Materials. His research activities involve development of energy efficient processes, processing technologies for ores and industrial minerals, design, simulation and techno-economical evaluation of new production processes, design of environmental protection processes, synthesis of high added-value materials from ores and industrial minerals, mathematical modelling and simulation of chemical and metallurgical processes, process analysis and reactor design. Since 2018 he is the Scientific Responsible of EIT RawMaterials Hub - Regional Center Greece, which was established by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT RawMaterials) in cooperation with the National Technical University of Athens. HUB Center’s objective is to mobilize all stakeholders within the Knowledge Triangle and to support the local ecosystem in order to enhance the innovative potential of the region, in line with European strategies.
		Asteris Pliakos Asteris Pliakos is Professor of European Law at the Department of International and European Economic Studies at the University of Economics and Business in Athens. He holds a degree in law from the University of Thessaloniki and an M.Sc. in European law from the University of Nancy, France. He holds a PhD in law from the University of Srasbourg, France. His research interests include: Law and economics in the European Union, competition law in the EU, EU internal market, institutions and freedoms in the EU.
		Katerina Pramatari Katerina Pramatari is founding partner at Uni.Fund (https://uni.fund), a new Greek VC fund of €30M in the tech-transfer and innovation window of Equifund that invests in start-ups and spin-offs at pre-seed and seed stage, supporting the growth of new ventures and leveraging the hidden potential that exists in the Greek Universities, R&D and Tech Space. Katerina has extensive entrepreneurial experience and has been the founder of two technology start-ups. She also serves as Associate Professor at the Department of Management Science and Technology of the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) and is among the top European experts/academics in the fields of Internet-of-Things (IoT), retail and business analytics. She is a key founder of ACEin, a leading University accelerator that has been awarded for bridging the corporate world with University start-ups. Over the last few years she has supported more than 200 teams in the setup of their own ventures and has been among the initiators and supporters of various activities fostering youth entrepreneurship.
		Vassilios E. Psaltis He was born in Athens in 1968 and holds a PhD and an MBA from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. He has worked as Deputy (acting) Chief Financial Officer at Emporiki Bank and at ABN AMRO Bank’s Financial Institutions Group in London. He joined Alpha Bank in 2007. In 2010 he was appointed Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and in 2012 he was appointed General Manager. Through these posts, he spearheaded capital raisings of several billions from foreign institutional shareholders, diversifying the Bank’s shareholder base, as well as significant mergers and acquisitions that contributed to the consolidation of the Greek banking market, reinforcing the position of the Bank. He was voted seventh best CFO among European banks (2014 and 2018) by institutional investors and analysts in the Extel international survey. He has been a Member of the Board of Directors of the Bank since November 2018 and Chief Executive Officer since January 2019.
		Jeffrey Sachs He is an American economist, academic, public policy analyst and former director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of university professor. He is known as one of the world's leading experts on economic development and the fight against poverty. Sachs is Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia's School of Public Health. Since 2017 he has been Special Advisor to the United Nations (UN) Secretary General António Guterres on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). He is also an Economic Advisor to governments in Latina America, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia; Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge, MA); a member of the Brookings Panel of Economists (Washington, DC) and Co-Chair of the Asian Economic Panel of Economists. He worked as Special Advisor to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on Millennium Development Goals.
		Diomidis Spinellis Diomidis Spinellis is the Head of and a Professor in the Department of Management Science and Technology at the Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece. His research interests include software engineering, IT security, and cloud systems engineering. He has written two award-winning, widely-translated books: “Code Reading” and “Code Quality: The Open Source Perspective”. In 2016 he published the book Effective Debugging: 66 Specific Ways to Debug Software and Systems. Dr. Spinellis has also published more than 300 technical papers in journals and refereed conference proceedings, which have received more than 8000 citations. He served for a decade as a member of the IEEE Software editorial board, authoring the regular “Tools of the Trade” column, and as the magazine's Editor-in-Chief over the period 2015–2018. He has contributed code that ships with Apple’s macOS and BSD Unix and is the developer of CScout, UMLGraph, dgsh, and other open-source software packages, libraries, and tools. He holds an MEng in Software Engineering and a PhD in Computer Science, both from Imperial College London. Dr. Spinellis has served as an elected member of the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors (2013–2015) and is a senior member of the ACM and the IEEE.
		Dimitris Spyrou Since January 2017 he has held the position of Consultant in the departments of strategic planning and marketing at the Port Authority of Piraeus, where he has been Director of the Administration Department since May 2013. He has also held the position of Director in office of President from Mar 2010 to May 2013 at the Port Authority of Piraeus S.A. Previously worked as IT Expert, Project Manager, Head of Systems and Databases Department, System Administrator and System Analyst. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from AUTH and an M.Sc. in e-Commerce from Kingston University. He has worked as a teacher of Physics and Computing in the Public Education (1984 – 1987).
		Christos Staikouras Christos Staikouras is a Greek economist and politician who is currently New Democracy's Coordinator of Economic Affairs. Since the 2007 legislative election, he has been a Member of the Hellenic Parliament (MP) for Phthiotis. After the 2019 election, he was appointed Minister for Finance in the Cabinet of Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Staikouras studied mechanical engineering at the National Technical University of Athens. He went on to complete an MBA at Imperial College London and a PhD in banking at City University London. He worked as an analyst for the Bank of England and then Eurobank Ergasias before becoming a lecturer at the Athens University of Economics and Business in 2002. He continued in this role whilst taking on additional responsibilities, including at the University of Thessaly and the Hellenic Open University. In 2006, he was made an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Athens University of Economics and Business, going on leave in 2007.
		Yannis Stournaras Yannis Stournaras is the new Finance Minister of Greece and professor of Macroeconomics and Economic Policy at the Department of Economics and Business at University of Athens. He was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors at the Ministry of Economy and Finance. He participated in the design of macroeconomic and structural policies (especially in the design and implementation of the Convergence Programmes) and represented the Ministry of Economy and Finance at the Monetary Committee of the European Union. In this capacity, he participated in the negotiations for the entry of Greece in the Economic and Monetary Union. He was responsible for the consultations with international organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
		Costas Synolakis Costas Synolakis is Professor of Natural Hazards at the School of Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Crete, broke the 10,000 citation level as reported in Google Scholar. Prof. Synolakis is the Director of TUC’s Natural Disasters and Coastal Engineering Laboratory (NDCEL), and he is also Professor at the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering and the Director of USC’s Tsunami Research Center (TRC). He is the Chairman of UNESCO’s IOC Review Board on the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and, formerly, he was the President of the Hellenic Center for Marine Research. He was awarded the 2014 Sergey Soloviev Medal of the European Geosciences Union on natural hazards and the 2015 Moffat and Nichol Award of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Professor Synolakis was elected on 17 March 2016 as the 45th member of the Academy of Athens, which is the only National Academy of Greece. He is the 4th Academician in the 90 year history of the Academy of Athens to hold the Chair of Earth Sciences. This Chair was vacated in 2012 with the passing of the Professor Nick Ambraseys. Prof. Synolakis is the leading tsunami engineer whose research over the past three decades spans a wide array of topics including: tsunamis, coastal engineering, water wave theory, breaking waves, runup, near-shore processes, seismology, marine geosciences, and volcanism. He has published numerous highly cited, key papers on these topics. His legacy includes the MOST code (the Method of Splitting Tsunami model), which has become the standard operational model used for inundation maps along the US Pacific coast.
		Rosa Tzima Roza is the community manager of Industry Disruptors - Game Changers, the biggest entrepreneurship and innovation enhancement organization in Greece. She has supported the development of a network of more than 500 start-ups, incubators and accelerators, mentors and other members of the local eco-system. She is head of operations of EiT Food hub in Greece for the past two years. Simultaneously, she is attending at the University of Piraeus, the MSc with the title "Digital culture, smart cities & IoT", focusing on smart cities which is her expertise. Her BSc is from Panteio University, majored in Mass media and culture.
		Nikolaos Vettas Nikolaos Vettas is a Professor of Economics at AUEB since 2003 and Chairman of its Economics Department (2007-2011). His research and teaching interests include Industrial Organization, Microeconomic Theory, Game Theory, Competition Policy and Regulation, Information and Learning. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of the European Economic Association, of the Journal of Industrial Economics and of the International Journal of Industrial Organization. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), London, UK and a member of the Economic Advisory Group for Competition Policy, European Commission, DG-Competition, Brussels. He has served as Member of the Greek Competition Commission (2000 - 2003).
		Kostas Vlachos Kostas Vlachos is the COO of Latsco Marine Management Inc. a subsidiary company of Latsco Shipping Ltd. He is a member of Technical and National Greek committees of ABS, DNV-GL and Lloyds. He is a council Member and ExCom member of Intertanko. He is a member of GPC of SIGTOO.